Opponents of GMO labeling say it will raise food costs by hundreds of dollars per family when in fact it will likely cause NO cost increase at all!

The California Right to Know 2012 Ballot Initiative, which will be voted upon in November, will tell Californians—and ultimately perhaps other Americans—whether their food contains genetically engineered ingredients. Not surprisingly, the biotech companies are up in arms over the proposal. Their website is NoProp37.com, funding[1] for which comes in part from the Council for Biotechnology Information, whose members[2] include Monsanto, Dow, and other GMO companies. The site, which used to be called StopCostlyFoodLabeling.com (they just recently changed the domain name—could it be because they realized it wasn’t costly after all?) says[3]:

[Labeling genetically engineered foods] would increase food costs paid by California consumers. The higher costs that farmers, food companies and grocers would face because of this proposition would be passed on to California consumers through higher food prices. That would hurt all California families—especially those who can least afford it, such as seniors on fixed incomes and low income families. An economic analysis of a similar measure that was rejected by Oregon voters found that the type of labeling regulations in the California proposition could cost an average family hundreds of dollars per year in higher food costs.

Note that they analyzed a rejected Oregon proposal, not the proposal on which Californians will be voting in November! But Joanna Shepherd-Bailey, PhD, has analyzed the one in California.

She’s the renowned tenured law professor from Emory who has testified before the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee and before the Committee on Law and Justice of the National Academy of Sciences. Her analysis reveals—in direct contradiction to the propaganda being put forth by the biotech companies—that GMO labeling will likely cause no increase in consumer costs at all!

In fact, her report[4] refutes the two key fear-mongering arguments being put forth by opponents of GMO labeling.

Kathy Fairbanks, the spokeswoman for the Coalition against the Costly Food Labeling Proposition, claims[5] that GMO labeling will increase the cost of food by hundreds of dollars per California family because food producers and grocery store owner will have to re-label food and put up placards. But Shepherd-Bailey found that the one-timeaverage per-product cost to manufacturers of redesigning all food labels is $1,104, which represents only 0.03% of annual per product sales, and that the one-time average per-store cost of placards disclosing genetic engineering will be $2,820, or about 0.1% of the annual sales in the average supermarket.

Because the increase in cost-per-item of goods is so small, it is most likely that this increase will not be passed on to the consumer at all. According to extensive survey research, a primary reason firms don’t change prices in response to many cost changes is because of the fear of losing customers. Even if relabeling expenses were substantial enough to justify the cost of re-pricing, many suppliers will simply refrain from changing prices from fear of losing customers to other products that have not increased prices.

Besides, manufacturers change their labeling all the time—anytime their product is “new and improved” or they change a logo or a box design—and those costs are not passed on to the consumer. When the government required nutritional information to be posted on each container, prices didn’t go up because of it. It would actually cost companies more internally to raise prices than for them to simply absorb the costs. And with an eighteen-month lead time, it may not cost many companies anything at all.

In a worst-case scenario, even if all of these costs were passed on to consumers, this translates to a mere $1.27 one-time increase in the total annual food expenditure for the average household in California.And this is an overestimate, since not all products will require GE labeling.

In other words, these specious allegations about rising food costs is just the latest attack from the anti-labeling camp—those who don’t want you to know what you’re eating. Several weeks ago we told you about[6] their specious charge that Label GMO will become a Prop 65 type “right to sue” law—that it would “create…frivolous and costly lawsuits” and would lead to abusive “bounty hunter”–style lawsuits that allow plaintiffs to keep a “bounty” of 25% of civil penalties collected—when in fact the initiative does not include the controversial bounty fees found in other California laws, and their entire campaign is based on disinformation. They are entitled to their own opinions, of course—just not their own facts.

Since the law would be enforced through litigation, opponents also claim[3] that GMO labeling will impose high costs on the state of California as a result of an increase in litigation. Shepherd-Bailey shows that this is also false. She estimates that the cost to the state will be negligible: the annual costs for processing and hearing cases should be less than $50,000. And while there will be administrative costs to the state as its Department of Health begins to implement certain provisions of the law, her analysis found that these administrative costs will be less than $1 million—that is, less than 1 cent for each person living in the state of California—causing the department’s expenditures to increase by no more than 0.03% and total state expenditures to increase by just 0.0008%. That one cent is all it will cost for critical health information to be made available to the many consumers who want to know what is in the food they feed their families.

If you are a California resident, please consider being part of the campaign[7] to educate your fellow Californians and get them to vote on November 6! Over 90% of Californians want their foods labeled—but it will never happen if citizens don’t understand the issues and get to the polls. Volunteer. Donate. Join a local group. And get the word out!

Being able to see which foods contain genetically engineered ingredients is particularly important when you see how dangerous GE crops can be. Monsanto’s “Roundup Ready” crops have been genetically engineered to permit direct application of the Monsanto herbicide Roundup (glyphosate), allowing farmers to drench both their crops and crop land with the herbicide so as to be able to kill nearby weeds—and any other green thing the herbicide touches—without killing the crops.

According to a recent animal study[8] published in the journal Toxicology in Vitro, glyphosate, which is frequently present residually in GMO foods, can affect men’s testosterone and sperm counts. It is toxic to testicle cells, can even kill them, and significantly lowers testosterone synthesis. As Jonathan V. Wright, MD, in the July 2012 issue of his Nutrition & Healing newsletter, points out[9], synthetic herbicides and pesticides are essentially “environmental estrogens” in humans, as these molecules mimic estrogen activity. GMO agriculture has exacerbated this situation.

There are many, many more health issues with GMO foods, as you can read about[10] in our earlier articles.

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This is a new video just out, and I just finished watching it this morning. It is truly a must watch. You will finally understand chemtrails aka ‘geo-engineering’ and why they are doing it and who is making money off it and why. Just so happens the Pacific Northwest is one area they launch a great deal of trails from.
Though I have run into many people who are aware of them they just don’t know why and so ‘let it pass’. The video is one hour and 12 min. I can’t recommend it enough. The dots are finally connected by many experts, and show the vast amount of money being made by the few. Money, commodities market,Monsanto, the science and history of it. A total indifference to mankind and nature.

They spray because we allow it” Please share with those you love and care about.

Peace
BC

fyi; At the last Wheat Growers Association meeting here, we were told Monsanto was developing an ‘aluminum resistant wheat for here- “because we have so much naturally occurring aluminum in the soil.”

Farm Wars

WHY in the World are They Spraying? FULL LENGTH Video!
Posted: 18 Aug 2012 08:19 PM PDT
Watch the full length version of WHY in the World are They Spraying? free online.

I suspect part of the reason for BigAgra’s stance is they would have to know the origin of all the crap they add to the highly processed crap on the shelves. I’m pretty sure they don’t currently know themselves. They’re running scared. Gee, too bad, they’ll have to pay attention to what they’re processing.

Well, maybe it will cost more since they are really using the billions in GOVt crop subsidies for all these GMO crops,,cuz the organic farmers arent getting the money! also, wasnt there an order 81 (Id have to look it up) when they were re making Iraq after the war about the farmers there having to use GMO crops or face penalty fines or even losing their land…??? I remember reading something about it awhile ago.. sooo what PASCHN says makes perfect sense to me.. This gmo has spread all over,…. Africa, south america, canada,India, they are trying to control us by food, which is something we need to live. this is terrible

This is SUPPOSE to be a free market, if everything is ‘as it should be’ what are they afraid of? People have the right to know what they put in their body- good or bad- PERIOD. If you don’t want sugar in your body you have the right to know what is in something so that you can avoid it. It goes without saying for anything else, why should GMO food be excluded.
It will not cost hundreds per family, that is just fear tactics. Labeling already exists for European countries which require GMO labeling. Are we not just as entitled?
Interestingly, Monsanto just bought the whole flipping bee research lab when the finger was pointing at Roundup …. WHY!
Come on, read what farmers are slowly finding out on their own without science degrees. GMO’s do not produce more. The roundup they use in order to farm ‘sustainablely’ (joke) to grow the GMO has developed resistant weeds and insects, and now they have to add another ‘concoction’ to roundup to do the same killing. Just how long do you think you can keep dumping those poisons on the ground. Common sense man. NO degree needed. What they did in Vermont should be a crime, and those who put it on hold voted out.
FYI Splenda has two factories, one is made from GMO corn that is sold in the states and the other factory uses standard old hybridized corn and that ships to Europe. … ‘Mon’satan’ knows that if this is passed in California it will go into all states as California is too big and it will be a nightmare logistically.
You would naturally think if someone thought their product was so good that they would WANT the label to show it…. That would be the natural way, IF they weren’t hiding things.
Those that hide and lie should be fed a steady diet of their own slop. Pass this article on to everyone you know. Post fliers in your area. Help where you can. WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER.

There’s an insidious aspect of this that many, (especially in AmeriKa), won’t be able to wrap their minds around. You see, because of the, (thanks to the West, virtually global), Central Banking Cabal’s machinations throughout Europe over the last 200 years, the majority of the cultures there have had to deal with mass-murders, genocide, theft of sovereignty. Tens of millions slaughtered by their own treasonous government, OTHER than during the Central Bank’s manipulated world wars there.
This culture hasn’t had to deal with those things either emotionally or spiritually. Because of this, when it becomes reality it will be horrible.
During the Bolshevik rule in Russia, the mostly Jew Politruks and Commissars didn’t limit their slaughter to just Russia, (some estimates run as high as 66,000,000 murdered). Poland and other nations suffered greatly. The Ukraine suffered through an engineered “Holodomor” that culminated with the intentional starvation of +/- 7,000,000 human beings.
Consider this. If we allow the Monsantos et al to use their “pocket politicians” to take over our ability to grow food, (GMO seeds sprout ONCE, then you have to buy seed from them for next planting season), on our own, They can literally pull a GLOBAL holodomor anywhere they wish to “punish” any pesky populations that may be “bucking” their system….their efforts to globalize slavery and usury through their Central Banking blood-suckers and the traitors in D.C. and every other nation’s capitol that has been crushed by their toadies here in the West. Taking into consideration their pathological greed, would you rather pay/feed/cloth and arm the “Blue Hats” to go into nation after nation to crush the indigenous people, or simply tell a willing toady to hold their annual allotment of seeds for their next growing season?
Does it sound frightening? Damn straight! Has it happened before? Yes, many times, (especially in the last 200 years or so). Can it happen here? Well, let me ask you this,have we ever had our “leaders” rip our Bill of Rights/Constitution into nothing as they are doing now? Have you ever seen our rogue government sell out our sovereignty to another nation as they have now? Allowed that nation’s agents into our nation’s government to such a degree that the visiting head-of-state was given 27 standing ovations by a room full of slimy, grovelling traitors as we have here in Washingon? This same nation guards our ports, airports, trains “our” police departments…very exciting, albeit frightening times we live in. The potential for death and chaos are enormous. Remain awake and aware.

Just think of what would happen if the GMO pushers spent just a tiny fraction of the amount of money they are using to fight labeling and simply labeled the stuff they promote as being so good for us. Instead, they spend millions fighting for a supposed couple of cents for a label change claiming it will be too costly? What’s the real agenda here? Because it definitely smells like GMO fish.

It really wouldn’t cost any more since most these companies have to have GMO’s labelled if there doing business in Europe. The good thing is that people are really starting to wake up fast and smelling the coffee! This is due to all the activism, especially in the organic and health areas. In other words, Share the info is more important than copyrights!